CANDLELIGHT JAZZ: The Candlelight Jazz Concert Series will feature AcousticJAZZ from 8 to 9:30 p.m. at the Augusta Common, 800 block downtown between Broad and Reynolds streets. Spectators are invited to bring blankets, lawn chairs and a picnic basket. Admission is $5. For more information, call 495-6238.

MONDAY

HOPELAND'S CONCERT SERIES: The Aiken Parks, Recreation and Tourism Department offers the 2004 Hopelands Summer Concert Series. Peter Fletcher will perform at 7 p.m. on the Windham Performing Arts Stage at the gardens, off Whiskey Road. In the event of rain, concerts are held in the H. Odell Weeks Activity Center, 1700 Whiskey Road. Admission is free. For more information, call 642-7631.

WRITERS MEET: The CSRA Writers Club will meet at 6:30 p.m. at Barnes & Noble Booksellers, 1336 Augusta West Parkway. Writers who need a support group are invited to attend and may bring eight copies of a manuscript to be critiqued. For more information, call 738-4114.

AVOIDING TICK BITES

Stay away from wooded, brushy areas

Check for ticks frequently

Wear long pants and a long-sleeve shirt

Remove attached ticks by using tweezers and pulling gently.

Today in regional history:

July 18, 1975

BARNWELL, S.C. - A young woman wept on the stand in federal court here Thursday as she told how she was dismissed from Aiken County Hospital with a day-old baby on the order of her obstetrician after she refused to be sterilized.

Mrs. Shirley Brown, 26, of New Ellenton, said she paid the full fee of $250 for prenatal care and delivery when the baby was born Sept. 2, 1973. However, she said she and her husband separated in June of that year and she applied for welfare shortly before the baby was due and entered the hospital on a Medicaid card.

Mrs. Brown is the second of two Aiken County women who have brought a $1.5 million damage suit to testify in the trial which goes into its fifth day today.

Dr. Clovis H. Pierce, in several appearances on the stand during the federal trial, has reiterated his policy of requiring women on Medicaid, or who are unable to pay, to consent to sterilization on the birth of their third child if he is to accept them as patients.